What does the majority of the youth of today aspire to be? Boxer or MMA fighter?

[TheRainSong]

If I was truly a gifted athlete, the last thing I would do is venture into combat sports. I

 

[brawlking]

I would deffinetly say boxing. Just from what I have seen in my life though. I've trained a bit of boxing, and when I was in high school and now college, I've noticed the amount of people training mma on a pretty steady rise. It is pathetic when people say "I'm training ufc now" and that seems to happen a lot.

Boxing is an easier thing to get into in my opinion, it is cheaper, usually, and for young people, boxing seems easier to actually get a fight. I live in Ontario and MMA is yet to be sanctioned here. I knew people that would go over to Quebec to fight, but all that costs alot of money. Hopefully soon MMA will be fully sanctioned and ready to go in ontario.

 

[brawlking]

over in belfast/ireland its not even close,

theres a boxing gym in nearly ever area of west belfast.

goddamn, thats what I dreamed it would be like! lol (hoping to go/move to ireland for a month or maybe more next year)

 

[chino0503]

i work at a mma gym... and it really boils down to ethnicity. believe it or not

alot of the young black and mexican kids like boxing while the white kids like bjj and muay thai.

 

[nefti]

in the USA unless you are a lower class mexican/african american. Most kids would perfer mma.

 

[Mola Ram]

I aspire to become a butterfly or a rainbow

 

[JohnathanWF**]

As a collegiate looking at a possible fighting career, MMA.
If boxing was like it was in the 80s, with the best fighting the best, maybe I'd box.
But it's such a fucking joke right now.
Plus, MMA is more fun.

 

[JRY82]

probably mma fighter, but starting a kid in boxing would be a good start to a mma career

 

[RandMcnally]

problem with today's mma training is that kids starting up with a MMA training ends up half baked. they learn striking but not enough to compete competitively in striking, either MT or boxing. Their boxing is fundamentally flawed with bad foot work and hands always down and no rotation of hips and shoulder. they learn ground game but not enough to compete competitively in BJJ. they end up jack of all trades master of none. At least for the earlier pioneers of the sport, they did master something and supplement it with other skills. We have seen NCAA champion wrestlers who added striking and submission to their arsenal, BJJ champions training in MT, etc.

Problem with today's kids is focus. malcolm gladwell wrote in his book that in order to fully master one skill you need to spend at least 10,000 hours practicing. now, if it's out of focus, imagine how many more hours you need to master BJJ, boxing and MT to be able to be competitive.

In my personal opinion, build a base then expand to other skill set.

 

[Iconoclast]

If we're talking strictly combat sports then I'd have to say mma fighter. If we're talking overall I'd say basketball or football player.

 

[SSD]

The reality is that in North America, MMA gyms are popping up everywhere. Boxing gyms, on the other hand, are in urbans and either have remained strictly boxing gyms or have switched to MMA gyms to attract more people.

In North America, I'd say that far more youth are entering MMA gyms while the number entering boxing are falling as the sport become less and less relevant.